The Mule
by Simply Sarah
Summary: He’s a mule, which makes it in his nature that he messes it all up. Better he do that sooner than later, right? Post-Hairography one-shot. Puck-centric, Puck/Quinn fic.


**A/N:** This is not that Quick with a history fic I said I'd been thinking about in my last story. I have decided to do that one. And thank you so much to everyone who was so encouraging. But with how much can happen in an episode and given the long break (it totally ruined my week that it's not coming back until mid-April) I decided to put off the long fic it would naturally be and thus keep it as canon as possible. I'm not changing any of the basics of it, I'm far too stubborn for that, but each episode and added character development does help me tweak some of the details. So the first chapter should be out sometime after "Sectionals" airs and before Christmas.

This story though, is a response to "Hairography." I understood why the things happened in that episode happened and I trust that the writers will go somewhere good with it all, but as a Quick shipper I'm also not entirely happy with it. Thus, I felt the need to put a Quick spin on everything and write about it. I know this idea has been tackled by many authors at this point (or I assume as much by summaries, I have yet to read much, it's what I'm off to do next), but hopefully this is an original spin on it.

The story is ever so slightly inspired by The Magic Numbers song "The Mule," thought it's not necessary to be familiar with the song to understand or enjoy the story.

**Disclaimer:** While I enjoy playing with the things of others, I actually own nothing.

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**The Mule

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He's a mule.

Mules are the spawn of a donkey (ass) and a female horse (mare).

Literally he isn't a mule. But his mom is his mom and his dad is an ass. And unfortunately he ended up as a combination of them both. Thus, he is a mule and everything in his life keeps reminding him of it.

He knew what he was doing (risking) when he first responded to Santana's texts. He knew what it could lead to and he chose to do it anyway. And he knew that his defense for his actions was stupid and expected, but he did it anyway. He didn't add on anything more honest or beg her to let him explain himself better. He already made his choice when he texted Santana and even though she looked so hurt and he had never felt more like a Lima Loser, he wasn't going to change his mind back.

He's absolutely fine with his decision. He believes he's done the right thing. When he thinks about it all the pieces add up to exactly this (or something worse than this). Because here's what he knows:

1. He's a stud- he makes a valiant effort to get into the pants of as many hot girls as possible.

2. He's never been in a relationship- dur, see point one.

3. He's never been that good guy, the one who didn't screw up every chance anyone ever gave him- and he's got lists miles long at the tip of his tongue naming every single thing he's ever done as proof of exactly that.

4. Quinn is having his baby- there are so many things he thinks about that, he really wouldn't know where to begin.

5. He could really care about Quinn and it seemed like there was potential for her caring for him too. And if (when- see point three) he screwed that up, it wouldn't only be Quinn's heart that he'd be breaking (which would already be unbearable) because they'd have a daughter and he'd be letting her down too (much in the same way his dad did- like an ass).

For him, at the end of the day, one, two, three, four, and five add up to him and Quinn never lasting, his family never lasting. He may be a pro at lying to other people, but he's never been much for lying to himself. It just takes him a while to figure things out sometimes. He had been chasing after a family never realizing that it didn't matter if he got them now because he'd never get to keep them. He's a mule who's always carried on like he's more than just half ass so losing the things he wants is just inevitable.

And it's better this way anyway. His daughter deserves a better father than he could ever be given his mule heritage. Quinn deserves a better man than he could ever be. He may have done something awful to his best friend, but Finn's still his best friend and probably the best guy he knows. Maybe he's been a bit of pansy lately, but he's still good, he's still Finn, he's still better for his daughter and for Quinn than he would be on his best day.

So he accepts his fate. He is a mule, there's no fighting it, it's in his blood. He tells Santana exactly why he stopped texting her Friday night knowing full well the series of events that would follow (her telling Quinn, Quinn confronting him, him having to talk about that night like she was just another score, her getting back together with Finn thinking it's right). Knowing what will happen doesn't make it suck any less, but he's been the kid that gets the shaft from the ass-dad that just can't get past his nature and he knows it would be worse for everyone if it happened two, five, ten years down the line.

(He didn't know that doing what's best for everyone wouldn't make him feel any better though. If it's even possible at this point, it makes him feel worse.)

-o-o-o-

He sees them absolutely everywhere. Walking down the halls holding hands, in class whispering to each other, at glee sitting together, holding each other. They look something less than happy, which he should be thrilled about, but he knows it's his fault and it just makes him feel worse.

Seeing _them_ makes him feel bad enough, but it's seeing _her_ that really gets to him. He's never been beat up. He's done the beating plenty of times, but he's never truly been incapacitated by someone else. But he gets beat up just by looking at her. It really does a number on his head and his heart and it renders him momentarily unable to do anything at all, be anything at all.

In those moments where he is knocked off his feet by her presence and he starts to get his wits about him again, he has these thoughts of telling her the whole truth, nothing but. He thinks of fighting for all of them again and making promises of being a good man. But his sanity comes back to him and he remembers how certain he is that it will hurt much worse later.

And it may be the thing he's had to work hardest at in his entire life, but he makes sure he doesn't give into those moments when he thinks he made a mistake. Because he was right in his decision and furthermore (and surprisingly) Mercedes was right when she said that he'd done enough to Quinn already. Their one night together is the reason she lost cheerleading, her social status, her family, her home, and probably her chance at college too (through cheerleading or her parents at least). He's screwed everything up for her once, he's not sure if he can live through it again. So he ends things now, gets out of her life, and every time he starts to think doing those things was wrong because he sees her and he just wants her so damn bad, he reminds himself that her picking him will only result in him causing her world to fall apart again at some point in the future when he inevitably screws up.

If he's really going to resist trying to be with her again, he knows he has to get over her. He's never really wanted a girl so much so he doesn't know how to stop wanting one. But he figures other girls should work right? That's why Santana was like killing two birds with one stone. Only it didn't kill this second one and he thinks maybe it's because of this particular girl's ties to the other. On that thought, he promptly starts ignoring the fact that Santana seems to think they're back together.

Santana's not one to sit around and put up with a guy treating her like crap so it only takes two days after his intentional disastrous end with Quinn, two days of him ignoring Santana, for her to march up to him at his locker and demand, "Why haven't you been answering my calls or responding to my texts?"

He shrugs and continues to search through his notebooks for his English homework (turns out actually doing his homework is a pretty good distraction- who knew it was useful). He offers, "Didn't want to talk to you."

If he was looking at her he'd see that she looked like she was seconds away from flipping her lid. "Excuse me?" she demands, "If I'm going to keep letting you be back together with me, then you better start acting like a better boyfriend."

He laughs, "We're not back together."

"I don't sext with guys I'm not dating," she informs him in a huff.

Please. He doesn't believe that for one second. He raises an eyebrow at her, finally looking up from his task.

"I don't," she reiterates at his look. She's always the one to break up with him so she doesn't understand what he's trying to pull here. Unless, "You're just pissed that I ruined your chances to get with Quinn, aren't you? Just because she's obviously not celibate anymore doesn't mean your chances with her are any better. Besides she's all pregnant by your best friend and huge anyway."

Her talking about Quinn like that makes him want to hit her. He's really tempted to hit her actually. Screw the fact that she's a girl and he's not supposed to be hitting anyone anymore (the principal may have mentioned the possibility of expulsion after his last fight), she's really pissing him off. But he figures there are other ways to release his anger and they'd be just in his fashion anyway. He shuts his locker, giving up the search, and turns to her as he informs her calmly, "I'm not mad about Quinn. You did exactly what you were supposed to do."

Her face scrunches in that really unattractive way it always does as she asks confused, "But you wanted her?"

"Which is the only reason you wanted me back in the first place," he says knowingly. Santana didn't like him. They'd fooled around and attempted something more enough times to make that perfectly clear. And he didn't like her either, which seemed to make her really pissed whenever he liked anyone else more- something that happened pretty easily given how much he disliked Santana (for anything more than fun at least). She seems surprised at the fact that he knew her angle (it's not like it's a secret that she's always been jealous of Quinn), so he continues slowly so she can't misunderstand, "I don't like you. I never did. We're not together now and all those other times you thought we were, I didn't, so I saw lots of other girls at the same time."

Honesty isn't usually his style, but he's an ass (a mule) and this was one of those rare times where he didn't feel like resisting it. And one rare time when honesty made him an ass and lying would have made him the better man.

He's about to leave after delivering that nice verbal slap in the face, but as he steps away toward his class he remembers something else. He doesn't really have to add it, but maybe he'd be doing the next poor sucker that goes for her hotness a favor. He walks back and informs her, "Oh, and you're horrible at sexting. Really, it was like a former nun who only had an idea of what sex is wrote them."

She looks really hurt after that one, but he doesn't feel bad. He's a mule after all, can't feel bad for simply acting out his mule like tendencies.

The problem with dropping Santana, especially so harshly, is that she's no longer a viable female distraction. He's going to have to find other girls to help him get Quinn off his mind.

-o-o-o-

He totally intended to find another girl to distract him after school, but then they had glee practice. They have to sing this really cheesy song, "True Colors," and during it she looks at him. (He only notices because he was looking at her, but that's something he'd rather not pay attention to.) She looks disappointed. (And hurt, which he still feels so guilty about.) He gets that. He supposes that in the end that's just who he is: the guy that will disappoint the people who care about him (a mule).

After practice, he forgets his mission to seek out a good distraction in the form of a hot girl. A certain look stuck in his mind, a certain girl just refusing to leave there.

Truth is, he knows he's going to keep forgetting this task. He may need to get over her, move on from what he shouldn't have, but that doesn't me he wants to. And he's not ready to move on anyway. It hurts to stay stuck in this place of wanting her, but it feels wrong to be any other way.

-o-o-o-

He gets through the next couple of weeks, but just barely.

The days aren't that bad. Sure he has to see her a lot and he starts to regret the fact that he joined glee to be around her because now he has to be around her that much more. But the rest of the glee kids and the approaching competition, football, and actually listening in classes serves as a really good (needed) distraction.

It's the nights that really get to him. In the night when the rest of the house is silent he doesn't have anything to distract him from thinking about her. How she's in Finn's house and possibly in his bed. How he will never ever have her because he made things that way. How he's his dad- walking away from his kid and its mother.

That last one, it's gnawed at him every single second since he came to the realization that both Quinn and their daughter were better off without him. It eats him up so bad inside, the fact that he can find reason in repeating the mistakes of his father, doing the same things that led him to hate his dad with every ounce of him.

He's not one for self-pitying. He knows full well he got himself to this place where he never gets the girl and ends up like his dad despite all of his previous vows not to. But he's not one for dwelling on it either and to escape thinking about it he needs a little assistance. He needs alcohol. For a couple of nights he tries his weekend tactic of hanging out in front of a liquor mart to find someone to score him something but they're a whole lot less busy on weeknights. Luckily, despite all the liquor marts in the area being wise to his fake ID (and the fact that he plays for the worst high school football team in the area), there's one just on the outskirts of Slabtown that he can get to pretty quick.

He always buys a lot and every few days. He likes to forget. Needs his mind numb enough so he can't think of all the things being a mule has cost him, all the things he's lost just by being him. Always telling himself that one more drink and he'll be fine. But he wakes up and he never is fine. (Knows he never can be without her or their daughter.)

-o-o-o-

About ten days until sectionals his mom comes home with some bad news. For the next week or so she's going to cover her friend Mary's night shift at the hospital (she's a nurse) because Mary has to go to Columbus because her mom passed away. This means that he's going to be responsible for his sister from eight at night until six in the morning for the next week. The bad part isn't being responsible for his sister, it's that being responsible for her means that he can't drink himself into not being able to remember Quinn's name (or his for that matter).

The first night drives him crazy, the second one is worse, and by the end of the third he's willing to blow his brains out so he doesn't ever have to think again. His mind keeps taunting him with thoughts of things he already made sure he can never have- the bastard.

The fourth night, as he's laying in bed well past midnight with her still swiveling in his head, his sister saves him by offering a distraction. But it's a bad distraction and honestly he'd rather be the one getting tortured.

Stella, his little sister, creaks open his door and peers in softly hiccupping through tears. "Noah," she whispers.

"Stel?" he questions sitting up in his bed, noticing her state he asks concerned, "What happened?"

"I had a bad dream," she says and he knows how she hates that, makes her feel like she's still a little kid and at eight she's become determined not to be.

"Come here," he says moving over and patting the spot next to him.

She climbs in his bed immediately and curls up next to him.

"What was your dream about?" he asks because for a while she had nightmares that their dad (who she doesn't remember- thank God) would come back and try and take her way from him and their mom. He really hopes those dreams aren't back. It was hard enough to keep explaining that there was no chance their dad was ever coming back the first time around.

"I dreamt that all the kids at school were making fun of me," she says with a sniffle. He reaches over, still turned toward her, and wipes away her tears with his fingertips as she continues, "They were laughing and picking on me and then they were hurting me."

"Kids at school don't actually do that to you?" he asks, just to make sure this nightmare isn't rooted in reality.

"No," she says shaking her head.

"Good," he says relieved. He adds because he's her big brother and it's his job (one he really doesn't mind), "You know nothing like that will ever happen either, right? Because I will always be here to kick the asses of any little kids that ever try to pick on you."

"I know," she says with a smile and trust in her eyes.

His sister falls back to sleep pretty quickly. He spends a little while just watching her, worried she'd wake up from another nightmare at any second. But eventually he rolls back onto his back and stares at his ceiling. His mind doesn't instantly return to thought of a certain blonde. Instead, he thinks about his sister.

Him and his sister, they've got the same parents: an ass and a mare. Yet his sister didn't turn out to be a mule like him. He turned out to have tiny bits of his mom (he supposes, doesn't often see it though) and huge chunks of his asstastic dad. But his sister, she seemed to be all the best parts of their mom and nothing of their dad. Maybe it's because she never had to know their dad. He never had a chance to rub off on her, but he thinks she's just somehow better than that, than them. It could just be that she's young and innocent, but he doesn't think so. She's just too good to turn out anything mule like, anything like him (again, thank God).

When he wakes up in the morning his little sister is absent from his bed. She's a naturally early riser (again, nothing like him) so he's not surprised. After he takes a shower and gets dressed, he is however surprised to find his mom in the kitchen making breakfast.

"What are you doing?" he questions as he enters and spies the pancakes and eggs on the table. "You just worked a night shift, you should be sleeping," he reminds.

"I know," she agrees as she grabs the carton of orange juice from the fridge and puts it on the table. She returns to the hash browns on the stove as she continues, "But I wanted to make you guys breakfast for a change before you go to school."

His sister finishes off whatever she was eating and his mom asks her, "Done?" She nods and his mom continues, "Alright, put your dish in the sink and go make sure you have everything in your backpack ready to go. I need to talk to Noah."

His sister obeys easily, she's a whole lot rebellious than him (again, thank God).

His mom places a plate loaded with food in front of the chair he usually sits in. He eyes it suspiciously. She needs to talk to him and needed his sister out of the room, that sounds bad.

"Well eat," she prompts, "you're too skinny."

"Pssht," he scoffs as he sits down, "I'm all muscle."

"I know," his mom says with a roll of her eyes because they have this conversation just about every meal.

He digs into his food because it's not like he's going to reject perfectly good food, but he still feels a bit uneasy. This feeling increases when his mom finally finishes rinsing out pans, grabs her cup of coffee, and sits down in her usual spot across from him. She stays silent, just sitting across from him and watching him over the brim of her coffee cup for a minute. Finally she says, "Stella told me about her nightmare." She waits for a reaction, but when all she gets is him continuing to eat she adds, "And what you did for her."

He swallows the massive amount of food he's managed to shovel in his mouth. What, is she going to punish him or lecture him about letting her sleep in his bed? Because he knows that they had long ago tried to break her of that habit (sleeping with either one of them), but it's not like she does it often anymore. It was a random bad dream, she needed someone and he was there.

Instead of the punishment or lecture he was expecting, his mom gets up, comes over to him, bends over and wraps her arms around him and hugs him. "Thank you," she says sincerely. She releases him and smiles at him like she's really proud of him as she adds, "You're a really good big brother to her." She looks a bit teary as she adds, "And I'm so glad you're becoming such a good man. Nothing like your father."

He doesn't finish the rest of his breakfast. He feels sick to his stomach instead. Because if only his mom knew everything, she'd know how he's exactly like his father instead of nothing like him.

He's a mule who's turning out a helluva lot more like the ass that spawned him instead of the mare. And since he's a mule and everything he ever does is therefore doomed, he knows the day will come when his mom finds out his true nature and her and her proud looks will be another thing he loses.

It's on that thought that he actually does lose his breakfast two minutes before he's supposed to drive his sister to school.

-o-o-o-

The queasy feeling in his stomach doesn't go away the rest of the day. His mom's words ringing in his ears doesn't go away either. But what really sticks is the idea in his head of how his mule-ness (heavy on the ass heritage) is going to result in him losing his mom and sister at some point too because he'll screw up with them just like everyone else.

These three feeling that just kept nagging at him all through the school day only take one second to go away though- one second that's more awful than all three of them combined.

They're all at glee practice rehearsing yet another lame ass dance (seriously, he could really do without all the dancing in this club) to go along with a new song they're rehearsing for sectionals and Quinn slips and falls. She starts getting back up immediately, but she's _Quinn_ and she's having his kid and the terror it strikes in him is unavoidable. As his urge to go to her. Luckily, Finn is closer and so is Mike, who blocks his really stupid and obvious almost-action.

She gets up with the assistance of Finn and Mike smiling and insists she's fine, everything is fine, they should all continue with the number. But while she was down and being helped up again, there was this moment where her eyes connected with his and he's not sure what that meant, but as they get back to rehearsing, anytime he crosses her path she's still looking at him like that. Like she knows something about him, figured him out. It causes his queasy stomach to return.

Eventually practice ends and as he retrieves his bag and finishes listening to Mike tell him and Matt why he's going to miss their next football practice (and why they should cover for him while he's taking his dog to the vet), he over hears Quinn tell Finn that she'll find her own way to his house, she needs to go to the library for a project but he should get to work, no need to wait for her. Finn's a good guy though (the better guy) and he hesitates, makes sure her and the baby are okay again, before finally caving to her insistence that he leave.

Once Finn is out the door she looks around for him and simply watches him until Matt and Mike finally leave. He slings his bag over his shoulder and prepares to head out, because he's sure she can't be waiting for him, not after how he made sure he messed everything up.

The other two people left in the room, Mr. Schue and Arty, are just heading through the door ten steps in front of him as he hears behind him, "Puck, wait."

Safer bet is to keep walking. It'd be especially ass-like of him, but he knows it'd keep them apart like they're supposed to be and who knows if he'll be able to maintain that if he stays. But it's _her_ asking and he can't help but stay.

He stops, but he waits a minute before he turns to face her. He tries to psych himself up. He will not tell her the truth. He will not try to fight for her (them) again. He will leave her making sure she still can't stand him, because it's better for all of them that way. Once he feels sufficiently confident that his mind is set to those tasks, he turns around to find her standing on the other side of the room, one hand on her stomach, waiting for him.

She shakes her head and smiles a little as she says, "You're a liar."

The direction surprises him, but what the hell, he can go with this. "You just figuring that out?" he questions, because really, she should have known that by now.

"No," she answers, "I've always known that about you. But stupidly I still trusted that you were telling me the truth."

He sighs, because the path of this conversation sound familiar and he can't believe she wants to have it again. They already established he's scum, she can't be with him, and she's back with Finn. Do they really need to go over all of it again? He questions, "Didn't we already have this conversation? Unless you're talking about some other lies I told you besides the one about Santana and wanting you and all because you're going to have to be more specific, kind of a lot to choose from."

"No there isn't," she counters confidently, "the only real lie you ever told me was when you said you didn't want just me."

"Uh," he stalls stupidly. He could have sworn she was still buying into his act of wanting every other hot girl just earlier today, but now she wasn't? That didn't make any sense to him.

She begins walking towards him and doesn't stop until she's right in front of him, mere inches between them. She explains, "I saw you when I fell, you were scared. You tried to help me. You wanted to help me. And then I started thinking about it and I realized I haven't seen you with any girls at all, not even just talking to them in the halls. But I've seen you looking at me and Finn and my stomach and you want us."

He can't meet her eyes as she figures him out. But he needs to make sure that things stay right like he made them so he looks up after her declaration, meets her eyes, and grits out, "I don't."

Her eyes narrow at him slightly in confusion, but then she just looks like she understands, like she was expecting him to fight it. This is confirmed as she rolls her eyes. She grabs his hand and puts it on her stomach faster than he can pull it away from her. She holds his hand there, where he can feel their daughter growing inside her. She whispers, sounding like a plea, "Then swear it. If you don't want us then swear it on her life. It should be easy for you to do if you really don't care."

His hand stays on her belly of his own volition, she doesn't need to be holding it there like she is. He can't take his eyes off of it either, his daughter. And he can't. He can't. He can't. He can't. He can't. He can't do this. He can't swear something on her life that just plain isn't true. The ass-spawned half of him falls somewhere into the background; being a mule simply not right for this anymore.

He's been silent for what feels like forever and he knows she must realize that he can't say what she's asked him to, she was right about him. He hears soft sniffling and finally tears his eyes away from where his daughter is to look up at her mother. She's crying.

"Please," she begs, "just tell me the truth. I never feel right anymore. I need to know the truth. I can't keep her without you but for that second today where I thought…I thought…I was so scared, I can't lose her."

He can't help wanting her to feel better and the words come spilling out before he can stop them, "You're both better off without me. It took me a while to realize and I'm sorry for leading you on, but it's the truth."

"We're not," she denies quickly.

"Yes you are," he insists. He sighs, a little frustrated, and breaks it down for her further, "I may not want any girls besides you right now, but I will eventually. It's who I am, just like my dad. And I'm going to let both of you down, going to hurt both of you."

It all starts to click in her head and she checks, "So you found a way to push me away first." He nods and he doesn't look guilty about it. She shakes her head again, like she can't believe this. She declares, "You shouldn't have done that. You already said it yourself, it's my decision what I do about our daughter, and about myself. You don't get to decide what's best for us and you certainly don't get to decide it based on some ridiculous notion that you're not right for us."

"I'm not," he yells, because damn, he was just trying to do the right thing by her. Most girls would appreciate that kind of thing, but here she is getting all huffy about it. (And isn't he an idiot if he still wants her despite her obvious insanity?) "You need better," he insists, "you should be with Finn."

"I don't," and here she hesitates for half of a very noticeable second as she changes her next word before letting the one she was going to yell back at him leave her mouth, "want him."

The air hangs heavy between them. They both know the word she could have said. The word that could be true if they gave themselves a chance.

(Love.)

She swallows noticeably and glances away from him to where his hand still rests on her stomach, hers on top of his. She reasons, "Look Puck, I know your history with girls. I know you're…slutty. But I asked you to babysit knowing that eventually you could lose interest in me, in being with me. I was just trying to figure out if you'd still want to be a family with me and our daughter even when you don't want to be with me anymore. Because I know that if I'm the one who eventually decides I don't want to be with you, I'll still want you to be a father to her. A girl needs her dad."

He thinks this must be how Finn feels. He feels like an idiot because he honestly never thought of any of that. She could be the one to stop wanting him and it could have nothing to do with the mule-induced things he does to her. But that reminds him that she doesn't really get it yet either. Because he won't just stop wanting her, tell her, and they'll end things amicably enough to both still be there for their daughter. He's a mule and his father's son and it won't go down like that.

She's looking up at him all hopeful and waiting. She's looking at him like she believes in him just a little bit. And for that look, the potential of that look getting stronger, he thinks maybe he doesn't have to be a mule. Parentage be damned, he really doesn't want to be, not for her or their daughter, he just doesn't want to be the guy he's been giving into lately.

He confesses, "I'll always want to be a father to her." He warns her though, "But I could really end up hurting you both."

"So could I," she relates honestly. He gets that she's saying they're in the same boat, but it's not the same- as a mule he's got a predisposition to hurting them. She continues though before he can interject that, "I'm terrified of how we could mess everything up, either one of us. But I want to keep her and I can't do it without you, I don't want to. I want to try."

He thinks of his sister and of how she's good despite having an ass-dad. He's been giving in to who he is his whole life, letting it excuse every behavior, but maybe he doesn't have to here. And with her in front of him asking him, begging him to let them do this, let them be a family, he really doesn't want to be the guy who lets her down. Plus, in this second chance she's giving him, here is an opportunity for him to not be his dad. Maybe things will still turn out as horribly as he thought, but at least he could say he tried to be a better man (a mule that's more mare than ass). He nods and agrees, "I want to try too."

He catches a flash of her beautiful smile before she flies into his arms hugging him. He hugs her back and they stay like that for a while, holding each other and him feeling their daughter between them.

He's still scared as hell that he'll end up hurting her. Luckily Quinn is extremely practical and promises to make him a list of the things she expects him to do in order to gain her trust back and a list of things he better not do or it'd be a deal breaker on their relationship. That should be really helpful, but he still fears that he'll screw it up in some way she can't even anticipate.

He realizes though that the only way to not be the mule he was born as, is to keep choosing not to be. He already started on that path when he told her the God's honest truth that he wanted her and their daughter. And it may be a lot of work to ignore the mule within him, but even if it never gets easier, he looks at Quinn and thinks of their daughter and he knows, they'll be worth it.

His dad may be an ass and it may have made him a mule, but the only person that's been keeping him that mule is him. Now, as he leaves the choir room with his arm around Quinn, he knows that he has an excellent reason to never be that mule again. He'll be a better man, he has to be, he has a family now.

The End.

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**A/N: I hope you enjoyed the story. **

**If you have the time, please do REVIEW! **


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